Only you can kick a child’s balls into space

We had a lot of fun with that title. Of course when you’re talking about launching a thousand ping pong balls into space there’s no end to the puns which can be made. But this is actually a fantastic initiative to get people of all ages excited about science and near-space experiments. [John Powell] offers school children the opportunity to send an experiment into space. He’s Kickstarting the next launch, which is scheduled to take place in September. This way each entrant can fly their project for free, then get the results and a certificate back once the weather-balloon-based hardware is recovered.

There is one size restriction for the program. Each experiment must fit inside of a ping pong ball. But you’ll be surprised what can be accomplished. [John] reports that the most simple, yet interesting project is to place a small marshmallow inside the ball. As it rises through the atmosphere it will grow to fill the entire ball, then be freeze-dried by the the extreme temperatures. Some are not so low-tech. There’s an image of a tiny PCB holding a DS1337 and some sensors. It’s an atmospheric data logger that will provide plenty of information to analyze upon its return.

First, I must said that I am embittered because such project did not exist when I was at school :)

But then I have one question : you remember those guys who sent a lego minifig at 80,000 feet for $400 including the camera/gps/3G ? There is also this $150 projects which reached 17.5miles (90.000 feet). If all the balls are filed with marshmallows, $9 per ball doesn’t seem expensive to you (for a donnation funded project) ? Of course if they are filled with lead…

Nothing that I’m aware of. My guess is wrong, but I say an aid to help kids remember chemical symbols, however what I assume are chemical symbols are unfamiliar to me. Has been a long time since high school chemistry though.